Apparatus for making incandescent lamps



Nov. 19, 1929.

W. R. BURROWS APPARATUS FOR MAKING INCANDESCENT LAMPS Filed June 14, 1922 W m 8 I William 1?. Bar

His Attorney,

Nov. 19, 1929. w. R. BuRRows 1,736,755

APPARATUS FOR MAKING INCANDESCENT LAMPS Filed June 14, 1322 2 sheets-sheet 2 Fig.3.

His Attorney,

Patented Nov. 19, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM R. BURROWS, OF NEWARK NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK APPARATUS FOR MAKING INCANDESCENT LAMPS Application filed .Tune 14,

' and many similar devices requires a large number of operations, many of which involve the heating and manipulating of glass tubing and cane. The standard practice in manufacturing incandescent lamps on a large scale is to perform each of the operations in a separate department. For'example, in making the mount, some tubing, a piece of glass rod and some leading-in wires will be welded together in the stem making department, then the anchors for holding the filament will be inserted in the glass rod by thehdok inserting department and then the filament is placed on the anchors in the winding department; The finished mount'is then sealed into the bulb in the sealing-in department, the

. unbased lamp exhausted in the exhaust department, the base applied in the basing department, the lamp aged in the aging department, inspected in the final inspection department and finally packed in the pack-. ing department. The machines in these various departments are of different capacities as severalmachine's may be required in one department to keep one machine in the next department supplied. Each department is breakage'and loss, and much other handling of the assembled lamp. The stem maker takes the stem from the stem making machine and puts it in a. tray. The tray is carted to 1922. Serial No. 568,166.

mount put back in the tray. At the sealingin machine the mount is taken out of one tray, the bulb out of another tray, and then the sealedin lamp put back into a tray. From then on the operation of taking the lamp out of a tray and putting it back in the tray is performed many times, first by the exhaust machines operator who takes the lamp out of a tray, exhausts it, and puts it back in'the tray and then by the. exhaust inspector, by". the basing operator, by'the flash aging operator and by the final inspector after which the lamp is taken out of a tray and packed. Due to the. stock of parts maintained between departments, the lamp parts require on the average in a large factory from one-half day to one day and a half to move from one department to thenext and while in stock accumulate dust and .dirt which lowers the quality of the lamp. every operation the lamp or some part of it is taken out of a tray and put back. This repeated handling together with the repeated transfers between age of the standard practice above outlined,

and'the lamps produced will be on the average of better quality. My invention 1ncreases the productivity of each operator about 30% and decreases the floor space'required for a given output about 30%. Well known glass working and lamp assembling machines and devices may be used and in accordance with my invention are so arranged and coordinated that the glass stem of the mount passes from the'stem making of the tray, the filament applied, and the part the next department, where an operator takes machine through the other machines and dothe stem out of the tray, puts it in the anchor vices necessary to the making of a complete inserting machine, takes it out with the lamp, the other parts of the lamp being anchors inserted, and puts it back in the tray. added to it as it passes along and upon the In the next department the stem is taken out termination of any operation upon a lamp or of any step in its manufacture, particularly prior to the exhaust and sealin off of the lamp, the part is immediately an directly transferred to the succeeding machlne or device where the next operation beginswithout delay. A lamp part removed from one of the machines or devices is transferred directly and immediatelyto the succeeding device where is is placed or positioned where work is to be done upon it so that it 1s in readiness for the next operation. Where this transferring is done by hand, the operator in unloading a art from a machine de livers it directly an as a part of the unloading operation to the lace'where the next operation isto be per ormed, thereby eliminating the repeated handling and the 10st motion of the standard practice.

My process is a continuous one in which the various steps'necessary to the manufacture of a lamp follow one another so directly and immediately that beginning with the necessar- 7 1 repeated heatin gas free when thelamp is sealed, as all or sub- 1 occluding gas before the. air

stem-making the manufacture of a complete lamp niay be com leted' in only a few minutes whereas the stan ard practice heretofbre followed is an intermittent process involving such long waits between steps that to make a lamp requires days.

Most of the steps or separate operations for lamp making, particularly those w ich involve heating or working of.

glass, are by my invention carried out in direct sequence and with such slight delay between operations that any glass part which is once heated during the lamp making operations and thereby freed of moisture does not absorb moisture or occlude gases before the lamp has beenexhausted of the air in it.

Keeping the glass hot during the making of the lamp greatly reduces the range 'of temperature changes to which it is subjected during lamp making and lessens the break agecaused in the standard practice by the of cold glass from room temperature to t e softening point, followed .by ts cooling down to room temperature agam:

By my invention the-glass is substantially stantially all of it is heated so hot durin the makm of the lamp that practically a the occlu ed gases are driven out of it.

Most of the glasssih the mount and some of that in the bulb is heated to the plastic or welding temperature, and all of it is heated until it is substantially moisture and gas free, and after the glass is once heated, it does not deteriorate by absorbin has been removed from the bulb and the bulb hermeticall sealed. 7 v

e glass-working operations incident to the manufacture of the mount may be car- 'ried out on various well known types of ma- '-chines and devices for performing the successive steps of mount-making, ma-

moisture or chines and devices being so coordinated in accordance with my invention that within a short time which may be only a few minutes after the initial heating of any of the glass parts of the mount on the stem-making machine there arrives atthe sealing-in machine a freshly made substantially gas free mount. 7 c

This mount is in excellent condition-,jte be put into the bulb, and is then, in accordance with my-invention, and while still sateen neck of the bulb heat the bulb to some'ex- V tent but by my invention the body of the bulb is subjected to'additional heating while'it is onthe sealing-in machine and prior to the closing down of the neck of the bulb on the edge of the'flare. Of the total heating of the lamp on the sealing-in machine a good deal, in some cases about one-half,'-is due to.

this additional or extra heating, the remainder being due to the sealing-in fires. The heating not only drives the-occluded gases out of the glass of the bulb, but expels a. great 7 deal of those gases by causing the air in the bulb, mingled with the gases driven out of the glass, to expand and most of it escapes freely while the neck of the bulb is of full diameter and neither the. expelled gases nor other deleterious gases have an opportunity to re-enter the bulb.. If the bulb is, sufficiently gas free the additional heating on the sealing-in machine-may bedispensed with but with most bulbs". the additional heating is necessary in order to get'a high quality lamp. T

My invention may be practiced to bestadvantage when the various machines. and'-dcvices used are placed adjacent to'each other with the delive position of one in such relationto theloa 'n position of the next that the lamp part can one to the next directly and with a minimum of lost motion. This transfer may be made automatically or by an operator'and the ma- 1 chines and devicesare so timed and synchronized that as anyone delivers a part of the next is ready totakethat part. q

of it are first positioned 'inthestem-making.

machine, progresses step by'step through each:

machine and from'one machine-or operation to the next, each step bringing nearer to a finished lamp an particularly those between machines or op- .transferred from any itthat much; all 'thesteps I a .The mount, from the time'the glass parts- I,

erations, being taken as directly and with as little delay as possible.

During the manufacture of lamps on a are a great number of parts in process of manufacture, most of which are in stock between departments and a great many trays are required to store and transport these chine which can be installed parts, but by my invention only a few parts are in process and the only traysneeded are those for carrying and storing bulbs. For example, a factory having an output of about 30,000 lamps per day which follows the standard practice will have in process of manufacture lamp parts of a value of about $14,000

and Will use about 3200 trays for bulbs and about 1100 trays for mounts. A factory having the same output, but operated in accordance with my invention, will havein process of manufacture such a small number of parts that their value is only about $1500, and will have only 1000 trays, Which are used for 'storing and handling bulbs. I

By my continuous process the quality of the lamp is improved, shrinkage is lessened and much better and quicker service to the customer may be given as finished lamps of any particular type ordered are obtained within a very short time after manufacture begins. By the standard practice a number of days is requiredtomanufacture even a very small number of lamps owing to the length of time necessaryfor the various parts required for the order tomove from one department to the next.

. Although my improved process of manufacturing lamps may be carried out in many different ways and with 'many different types of machines, I prefer to use an apparatus or machine which I have invented and in Which the various devices or mechanisms for making the lamp parts and for assembling them into a complete lamp are tiedtogether or interlocked, either electrically or mechanically, to compel all of the mechanisms to operate in synchronism and in definite time relation one to the other. In the machine which I prefer various lamp-making mechanisms are me chanically interlocked through a common actuating or driving means, which in-effect, ties all of the mechanisms together and compels all of them tooperate in a predetermined and unvarying relation. These mechanisms or devices are mounted adj acent to each other with the delivery position of each one in such a relation to the loading position of the next that a lamp part can be transferred'from one mechanism to the next with minimum movement and delay. I prefer to mount all ofthese mechanisms on a common baseor table and to drive them from a common shaft carried by the table and in this way, I obtain a self-contained portable unitary lamp-making mamerely by connecting to it the power and-the gas and air supply for the burners and which can easily be moved when desired.

The common driving shaft interlocks all of the mechanisms and keeps them in synchronismpreferably by being connected to them by gearing and where the various mechanisms are of the step by step type a convenient way is to drive the common driving shaft through intermittent gearing, so that for each step of the driving shaft all of the mechanisms connected to it make one step. In this manner I provide a unitary complete machine to which the glass parts of the mount may be supplied at one end, various other parts of the lamp being added to the mount as it progresses step by step through the various mechanisms and from one mechanism or'operation to the next,all these parts being combined to form the finished lamp, which is delivered at the other end. The various mechanisms are so proportioned that as each one/delivers a lamp part upon Which it has been operatin the next one is ready to receive that part an .to begin the next operation.

To supply the additional heat to the bulbs in operation, I preferto use auxiliary burners mounted to heat the bodyof the bulb and so distributed that the bulb is'very thoroughly heated before'it reaches the final sealingin position where the neck collapses In this way I am able to deliver to the exhaust machine a sealed-in lamp hot enough to be exhausted and thereby I eliminate the oven which has heretofore been considered an essential and necessary part of an exhaust machine. v

The exhaust mechanism is preferably so arranged that it can be used either to exhaust vacuum lamps or to exhaust lamps and then fill themwith some inert gas such as argon to make gas filled lamps with the result that either vacuum or gas filled lamps can be made on my self-contained portable lamp-making machine with a minimum delay and shrinkage, each lamp being completed within a short time after its manufacture is begun.

' As soon as the machine is connected to the source of power and to the gas and air supply it is ready for operation. No adjustment or balancing-of thecapacity of one machine or department to correspond to that of the following one is necessary, since the speed and output of the various mechanisms which goto make up my improved lamp-making machine are properly related when the machine is manufactured and remain properly related because all of the mechanisms are interlocked and tied togetherby the common driving shaft.

For a better understanding of my invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawings in which merely'for purposes of illustration, I haveshown one form of maticed to advanta e.". In the particular ma-.

ing the connections for-the chine embodying my invention and means of which my improved method can e pracis a new in perspective showing the various steps of assembling the lamp and the auxiliary burners for im artin additional heat to the lamp duringt e sea ing-in operation; Fig. 6 is a erspective view of a part of the automatic tippin spective view of means for removing the waste ends of the exhaust tubes from the exhaust machine; and Fig. 8 isa diagram showchine.

Merely to explain one we in which my invention may be practiced, I ave illustrated the manufacture of an incandescent lamp of the tipless type, best illustrated in Fig. 5. The glass bulb 10 of this lamp contains a mount made up of a glass stem tube or flare m 11 and a glass rod or hub 12 joined at one end to the stem tube and having-at the other end an enlargement or button13 in which are embedded a number of tungsten or molybdeof a ring.

num anchors 14 to carry the filament 15 which is preferably coiled and arranged in the form Thev ends of the filament are clamped or secured to leading-in wires 16 hermeticall sealed into the glass stem tube '.;11. This tipless lamp is exhausted through an exhaust tube 17' which extends up into the stem tube 11. This particular type of lamp and stem is illustrated more indetail in the United States patents to Mitchell and White,

I Nos. 1,423,956 and 1,423,957,- July 25, 1922.

In the particular type of machine illustrated in the drawing the various devices for making the lamp parts and assembling them are mounted upon a common portable base such as a table 18 and are all driven by motor ,terlocks the mechanisms and comprises spur.

19 through common driving means which in gearing 20, a continuously rotating auxiliary driving shaft 21, intermittent, gearing 22, and anintermittentl moving main driving shaft 23 driven step y step by the intermittent gearing. 'Thevarious lamp-making devices and mechanisms mountedyon the table 18 are driven in definiterelation. to oneanother-and kept in step-and in' synchronism by the driving shaft 23. 1. 7

. In the particular machine illustrated the manufacture of the mount begins on the stemr making machinesA, onwhich the operator at station V assembles the flare or stem tube 11 the glass rod or cane to form'the hub 12 the off device; Fig. 7 is a perflash aging ma- I wires 16.

exhaust tube 17 and the This particular stem-making machine is driven from the intermittently actuated driving shaft 23 by gearin such as the spiral gears 24, which impart t e step by step movement of thedrivin shaft to a spider25 provided with five hea s 26 which hold the parts of the stem in proper relation. The intermittent movement of the spider brings each head in succession within range of the burners or.

fires 27 and'holds it stationary until the adjoining ends of the stem tubing, the exhaust tube, and the cane or hub are nearly at the melting point, whereupon all of these parts are pressed together and the leading-in wires embedded in the glass by'pinchin jaws-28 mounted on the head and actuate through a push rod 29 which in turn is actuated by a lifter 30 mounted in the table --18 and driven by a cam 31 on the continuously running shaft 21. The head then moves to the next osition where a burner 32 directs a pointed ame upon the stem between the leading-inwires and air under pressure is delivered throu h a 'et 33 to the interior of the exhaust tube 1 to low a hole through the solid mass of hot a glass formed by the pinching "aws. Many'other forms of stem-making inac ines can be used. The form of stem-making machine illustrated is suitable for the practice of my invention and is described more in detail in United States patent to Mitchell and White No. 1,423,957, July 25, 1922.

I may to advantage arrange the machine as shown in U. S. Patent 860,977, Howell and Burrows, July 23, 1907 so that the operator loads it with shortpleces of'stem tubing which are then flared on the machine before the leadin in wires are placed in position thereby eliminating the preliminary operation of makin flares.

The stem mixing operation heats'thead- 'oining ends of the stem-tube, of the exaust tube and of the hub until they are plastic and therefore free fromgases and water vapor. The stem with these parts still hot is transferred by the next operator at station W to the hook'inserting machine B which makes the button 13 and inserts the anchors 14. Before the stems are put into the hook inserting machine they may be annealed by an annealer consisting essentially of a horizontally.

rotatable table 34 provided'with pockets or I holders 35 inwhich' the stems'maybe placed to be heated by auxiliary gas burners if desired, although ordinarily such extra heating is not req The h k machine is a 1e and well knownformsuitable'for stems aving Y i only-one button and one set of anchors,

although similar machines are 'well .known,

whichare constructed to form two buttons and two setsof anchors. Either type of machine'may be used, depending u on t yp e a vhish isbeing ade 6 W- ticular hook inserting machine B which is illustrated in. the drawing is intermittently driven bythe drive shaft 23 through spiral gears 36 which are connected to a three arm spider 37 having a rotatable stem carrying head 38 on the free end of each arm. As each head comes to the loading position in front of the operator at station W a stem from the stem making machine A is placed in the head; This loaded head is then automatically carried to the next position, Where the upper or free end of the hub 12 is heated almost to the melting point by a burner 39 and is then compressed to form the button 13 by a vertically reciprocating press arm 40 driven automatically. The head then moves to the next position where the anchors are inserted one at a time by an anchor inserting mechanism 41, such as that illustrated in the U. S. patent, Frech and Fagan 1,220,836, March 27, 1917.

I A particular point on the button 13 is heated by a burner 42 until it is plastic and then the anchor is automatically thrust into the softened glass and thereby embedded in it. To present the diflerent points on the button to the burner 42 and to the hook inserting mechanism each head is automatically rotated step by step at the hook inserting position. For simplicity I have illustrated a lamp provided with only three anchors set 90 apart. To insert these anchors I rot-ate the stem holding head at the hook inserting position by some intermittently acting mechanism such as a four tooth. ratchet wheel 43 controlled by a locking pawl 44 mounted on the spider arm and a driving pawl 45 mounted on the outer end of a swinging arm 46 which is carried on a shaft coaxial with the head when it is in hook inserting position and which is driven automatically in any suitable way. As the head moves into and out of hook inserting osition the ratchet wheel 43 comes within an passes outof range of the driving pawl 45.

The hook inserting mechanism illustrated in the Frech and Fagan U. S. Patent 1,220,836 is operated from a rock shaft which is rocked by a handle. In the particular machine I have illustrated this rock shaft of the hook inserting mechanism is automatically rocked by a corresponding arm 47 moved by a rod 48 actuated automatically by any suitable mechanism. The necessary movements can be given to the parts of the hook inserting machine by many forms of automatic mechanism. Merely for the purposes of illustration I haveshown an actuating mechanism com prising a cam shaft 49 which makes one revolution while the spider 37 is stationary and then is stationary while the spider is shifting to the next position.

This relative movement of the cam shaft 49 and of the spider may be obtained in many different ways, but merely for purposes of illustration I have shown the cam shaft driven through a pinion 50 which meshes with a mutilated gear 51 driven through bevel gears 52 from the auxiliary shaft 21 at the same speed as that shaft. The mutilated gear 51 has two sets of teeth each equal in number to the teeth on the pinion 50 and two blank spaces between the sets of teeth, each blank space being long enough to permit the pinion 50 to stand idle while the spider 37 is shifting one step.

The button presser 40 is reciprocated once for each revolution of the cam shaft 49 through a bell crank lever 53 actuated .by a cam 54 on the cam shaft. The stem carrying head 38 While in hook inserting position is intermittently rotated, one complete revolution in four steps as the result of four oscillations of the swinging arm 46, which is oscillated through a push rod 54 from an edge cam 55 having four points on it. The hook inserting mechanism is actuated three times in synchronism with the stem holdin head '38 each time inserting an anchor in the utton 13 while the head 38 is stationary, these three anchors being 90 apart, and then skipping the insertion of a fourth anchor to leave room for the ends of the leading in wires. The hook mechanism to insert three anchors and then skip one for each revolution of the cam shaft.

It may be considered desirable to form on the ends of the anchors a closed loop or hook instead of the open hook formed by the shapes illustrated in the .Frech and Fagan U. S. Patent, 1,220,626, and in such cases I may close the open hooks by hand when the operator puts the filament in the anchors, or I may close the hooks on the machine'by some automatic means, such as a rotatable bender 58 which has projecting from its end one pin concentric with its axis to form or support the loop of the hook and another pin eccentric to the axis to carry the free end of the 'hook around. the first pin when the bender is rotated at the proper time by gearing 59 actuated in proper time relation" to the rest of the anchor inserting mechanism. The

bender 58 ,is carried on an arm which is After the anchorsare inserted the head 38' carrying the stem returns to the loading position in front of the operator, who removes the stem from the head and replaces it with a fresh one. He then fastens the filamentto I theleading in wires by some suitable means such as the pinchers 60 or an electric welder v mounted in the same position as the pinchers. The mount is now completed. It may be, if

I I desired, placed in a rotatable holder 61 so as to be convenient for the sealing-in and exhaust operator at position X.

The mounts are sealed into the bulbs by a.

sealing in machine C intermittently driven by the drive shaft 23 through spiral ears 62 whlch drive a spider 63 provided wit rotathead at all positions except the loading ppsiulb able heads 64 for, holding the bulb and mount 111 proper relation during sealing in. Each tion is rotated with the neck of the within range of the scaling in fires 65. I

The sealing in'fires heat th glass at the various positions and at the final position.

weld the mount into the neck of the 'bulb. .The-bulb is steadied and the surplus neck pulled off by a pivoted fork 66. Each head may be rotated by a friction wheel 67 which engages friction wheels 68 when the spider is stationary the wheels 68 beingdriven by gearing 69 from the continuously running shaft 21. Each head has a-vertically movable tubular mountcarrier 70 which holds the mount and which may be constructed in well known ways for instance, as shown in United States patent to J ames' E. Marshall No. 1,475,192, November 27, 1923.,

" This mount. carrier is lowered at the loading position to permit easy insertion of the, mount, and is automatically raised at the other positions as its lower end rides up on a circular cam track 71 which extends under all the positions of the heads except the loadingposition. After the head leaves the final position the lower end of the mount carrier 70 runs oif'the end of the cam track 71 into a control fork 72 which takes hold of it and lowers the mount carrier thereby leaving the the use 0 a substantially shaft 21."

sealed in lam free. The control fork is actuated by a roc lever 73 from a cam 7 4 on-the All of my invention is gas free bulb. The

important feature ing inmachine with mount arrives at the sea all of its g'lassparts substantially free'from strains and from water vapor and occludedgas, due to the short intervals between the various stem making operations and the; quick transfer of the stem to the sealing-in machine. I may use cold'bulbs made and storedin the usual manner by subjecting the bulbs and the other glass parts to a very thoroughheating on the sealing-in machine. If.

. the bulb is substantially free from gases and water vapor the heating caused by the seal ing in operation during which a zone on the neck of the bulb is heated until the glass is a plastic will be sufficient, but for bulbs of the usual sizes and qualit additional heat is necessary to produce the ighest quality of lamp. In accordance with my invention all parts of the bulb are very thoroughly heated durin the sea in o eration and before the neo ofthe b" bflcol apsesnpon the flare of the mount, thereby causing the occluded gases and water vapor to be driven out of the walls of the bulb and tomingle with the air in' the bulb. This air, being strongly heated,

expands and much of itpasses out of the bulbwhile the neck is of full size so that the escape of the heated air with its entrapped gases andwater vapor is practically unobstructed. By the time the bulb reaches 7 the final position where'the final fires cause i the neck to collapse upon the flare and 'be welded to it, the bulb contains only attenuated heated air andthe walls are practically hot flame ,which heats the body of the:bulb

very thoroughly. In addition, in the final position, I further heat the bulb by means of an auxiliary burner 76 which directs its flame upon that part of the-neck between the zone rendered plastic by the scaling in fires and the body'xof the bulb; A very complete and uniform heating of all partspf the bulb and of'the mount is thus obtained. The auxiliary burners 75 and 76 may be supported in any convenient way, as for .exai nple, by'means of the su ply pipe 77. Bymeans of these auxiliary burners' I raise the temperature of all of the glass parts of the lamp to about 310 C. .when the'lam is finally sealed in at the final position an at this temperature all of the glass is practically free from gases and 'water va or. Without the auxiliary burners enoug water vapor might remain in the glass to injure the quality 0 the lamps.

The sealed in lamps while still extremely hot are taken from the sealing in machine by the operator at station X. The hot lamps .are handled by tongs or in some similar manner, and are transferreddirectly and as quickly as possible to the exhaust machine D where the air is quickl exhausted from the lamp so that it is free .om air, water vapor, and injurious gases. If the lamp'is a vacuum lamp it is then sealed off or if. it is a gas filled lamp is exhausted, filled with some inert gas, such as' argon, and then hermetically sealed.. In either case the deleterious gases and water vapor are driven out of the lass and removed from the lamp'before the ulb is sealed off. -No oven or similar heating means on the exhaustmachine is required as by my invention the lamps arrive at the exhaust machine hot enough for exhaust. This is a marked advanta e and causesfa marked saving in cost of mac inery, and reduces the shrinkage due to heating up sealed in lamps which have become cold,

The particular type of exhaust machine D which I prefer to use is driven by the drive shaft 23 through spiral gears 78, and consists essentially of a fiat valve 79 .provi'ded with a series of ports equally spaced on the circumference of a circle as indicated in Figure 1 and cooperating with a'flat valve seat 80 also provided with ports arranged with the same radial and circumferential spacing as the ports in the valve so as to register with them. As shown in Figure 2, each port in the valve is connected to a tube holder 81 for holding the exhaust tube of the lamp. The particular machine illustrated in the draw-- ing is suitable for manufacturing gas filled lamps and the valve is provided with twelve ports so arranged with reference to nine counter-clockwise direction, and the hot lamp direct from the sealing in machine C is placed in the exhaust machine by inserting the exhaust tube 17 in an exhaust tube holder '81 at one of-the idle positions 7' and k. If the flat valve 79 is moved intermittently and step by step from the driving shaft 23 the lamp eventually comes to the first active position L where it is connected to the exhaust pump 82 and in this osition the air is exhausted from the bul By the next step the valve carries the lamp to the second active position m where the lamp} is connected to a leak detector 83 or some similar device for showing whether the lamp leaks. The next step brings the lamp to the third active osition n where it is filled with nitrogen rom a nitrogen supply manifold 84. I

At the next four positions 0, p, q, and r it is connected alternately to the pump and to the nitrogen supply and finally in the eighth active position 8 to the pump 82. By this time the lamp has been thoroughly washed out with nitrogen, and all of the water vapor and deleterious gases driven out of the lamp have been completely removed. The next step carries it to the ninth active position 25 where it receives a charge of argon through an argon supply pipe 85 and at the same time the exhaust tube is heated to some extent by a preliminary torch 86. In this figure the lamps connected to the pump are marked P, those connected to the nitrogen supply are marked N and that connected to the argon supply is marked Ar. 1

The lamp is now ready to be sealed off and at the next step it comes to the idle position a where its port is on a blank part of the valve seat 80 and consequently the charge of argon is trapped and held in the lamp. In this final position it is sealed off in any suitable manner, preferably by an automatic tipping off device which consists essentially of a tipping ofl' torch 87 indicated more or less diagrammatically in Figure 6, and constructed to melt the contraction of the exhaust tube, thereby hermetically sealing the lamp. A pivoted lifting fork 88 provided witha weight 89 engages the bulb in the sealing off position and raises it a short distance when the exhaust tube is melted at the contraction. p

The tipping ofi' torch "87 and lifting fork 88 are raised and lowered bodily by some automatic mechanism. They may, for example, be mounted on a vertically reciprocating rod 90 actuated by a rocking lever 91 from a cam 92 on the drive shaft 21. As the rod 90 rises the fork 88 engages the bulb and further upward movement of the rod raises the weight 89, which is then ready to raise the bulb as soon as the exhaust tube is melted at the contraction, leaving the stub of the tube in the holder 81. The automatic sealing ofi mechanism is the same in principle as that disclosed in my U. S. Patent No. 1,013,124, January 2, 1912.

After the lamp hasbeen sealed off and lifted by the lifting fork 88 from the stub of the exhaust tube the valve 79 moves to the next idle position j and during thismovement the stub of thevexhaust tube is caught by a stationary finger 92 and pulled out of the tube holder 81 as indicated in Figure 7. The thick walled rubber tubing used in the tube holder is so mounted as to be flexible and yielding enough to permit this action to take place.

' When themachine is to be used for making vacuum lamps the ports in the valve seat may be connected to the pumps in various ways, as will be obvious to those skilled in the art. For instance, the ports at positions 8 and t may be connected to the final pump and those at positions ;0, n, and 'rto a source of hot dry air, instead of nitrogen, to give the lamps a dry air wash during exhaust; or the ports at positions n and 0 may be connected to the preliminary pump and those at p and g to the final, the tipping off torch being placed at position and either some provision made for carrying the sealed off lamps to the hasing operator at station Y or the stations Y and Z placed in the same side of the table as the pump station Y to take the lamps sealed off at position 9. Suitable connections of the ports to the pumps for exhausting the lamps are dis- 84 to enablethe operator at closed in U. S. Patent to Massey, 996,936,

July 4, 1911, and in my U. S. Patent, 1,013,-

- 124, January 2, 1912.

base lined with soft cement and placesthe leading in wires properly on the base. The

lamp and base are then placed in the basing machine, E which is driven throu h spira gears 93 from the drive shaft 23 an consists which fastens the base tothe bulb. In this particular machine each pocket is within range of the burners for 8 positions and then for the next 6 positions it is between two concentric air pipes 99 which are carried by the supply pipe 100 and direct cooling air upon the pocket. By the time the lamp has completed one circuit of the basing machine and returned to theloading position, the base has been baked on and the lam is ready. tobe removed. The lamps are he d-with the bases 7 in the sockets by some suitable holders such as thevertically movable holders 101 provided with springs .102 to yieldingly hold the bases in the sockets and the bulbs in the bases until 4 the cement hardens.

The based lam is removed from the basing machine,-the lea ing-in wires soldered to the base with a soldering torch 103, and the lamp then placed in the flash aging machine F which automatically passes certain amounts of current for certain lengths of time through the filament of the lamp to age it. The particular type of flash aging machine shown is a rota machine driven through gears 104: from t e driveshaft 23,and comprises an intermittently rotating table 105 rovided with sockets 106 connected as shown ia ammatically in Figure 8 to a supply circuit. The connections are such that as the table 105 rotates in clockwise direction thexlam is y is ready to be put into stock.

from

All of the lamp maki devices F are driven b common rive shaft 23 which oo keeps them a in step and synchronism. I

may so time the machine that the stem mak machine A and the hook inserting machine B -run abount 10% faster than the remainder of the machine to allow for some slight 10min the mount making opera t of Inca-rec tion. The" sealing in 'ma'chine G,eihaust ina- F chine D and basing machine E,and aging machine F, may to advantage be timed-tomove from one I SO. that i no losses 'are'incurred the output sition to the next every 15 seconds v 5 of each machine is four lamps per mlnute. V v

The operation of my machine will beevident from the above description. j All of the.

operations are conducted in a definite and fixed synchronism and time relation tot-he other operations and all lamp parts aretransferred directly and-innnediately from one operation to the next. No stock accumulates between machines or operations such speed that the glass in the interior of the lamp, does not become contaminated by water vapor and occluded gases be-' cause of the speed with which the lamp has been assembled and the bulb has been scaled.

the temperature of all of the glass at the time the lamps are first connected to the pum and allop-J erations and transfers are conducted with 84 is usually in the neighborhood of 300v The machine is a portable self contained unit capable of performing all the operations necessary to assemble a finished lamp. The

pumps and similar parts may be mounted on conducted with so little delay between them that if the finished lamps are defective in any respect the trouble is immediately locatedand remedied before more than a few idefective lamps are made. 1

I have describe'dlmy improved apparatus as applied to the manufacture of incandescent electric lamps but my invention is equally Q valuable in the manufacture of any similar 1 device particularly one which has aglass bulb with a mount or interior structure contain-. in glass.

I at I claim as new and desire to-secure I by Letters Patent/of the Uiiited States, is 1. In a machine for making incandescent lamps and similar articles, the combination with a sealing-in mechanism for assemb a bulb and molmt by fusing the mount an supplying additional heat to the walls of the the neck of the bulb together, of means for bulb 1 during the sealing-in operation and while theneck of the bulb is open, mechanism mounted adjacent to said sealing-in machine e hot sealed-in lampv to an exhaust pump,

transferred directly and immediately t gt exhaust from air still hot.

2. A machine for making incandescent sealing-in head to an exhaust head and to be lamps and similar articles comprising a mount making mechanism for fabricating glass and wire into mounts, a sealing-in mechanism for sealing said mounts into bulbs and adjoining said mount making mechanism to receive said mounts and immediately seal them into bulbs, an exhaust mechanism adjoining said sealing-in mechanism to receive said sealed-in lamp from said sealing-in mech anism while still hot from the sealing-in operation and to immediately free it of air and seal it off while free of air, and means for driving said mechanisms in such time relation that the output of mounts by said mount making mechanism corresponds in quantity and time intervals to the mounts required by said sealing-in machine and to the delivery by said sealing-in mechanism of sealed-in lamps to said exhaust mechanism.

3. A self-contained unitary machine for making incandescent lamps comprising a portable table, mount making mechanism on said table for fabricating glass and wire intomounts, a sealing-in mechanism on said table adjoiningsaid mount making mechanism and timed to receive said mounts substantially as fast as the are made and to seal each of them intoa bul immediately to form a sealed-in lamp, exhaust mechanism adjoining said sealing-in mechanism to receive said sealed-in lamp while still hot fromthe sealing-in operation and to immediately free it of air and seal it off while free from air, and common driving means on said table for driving said mechanisms in definite time relation such that the intervals between the delivery by said mount making mechanism of successive mounts are equal to the intervals between the delivery of sealed-in lamps by said sealing-in mechanism and of exhausted lamps by said -mount into the neck of a'bulb comprising bodily movable heads for holdin the mount exhaust mechanism. y

4. In a machine for making incandescent lamps and similar articles, the combination with a sealing-in mechanism 'for fusin a within the bulb, and sealing-in urners adjacent the path of said heads for'fusing the mount into the neck ofthe bulb, and means for supplying additional heat to the walls of the bulb to free them of occluded gases while the neck of the bulb is open and is being heated by said sealing-in burners, of an exhaust mechanism adjoining said sealing-in mechanism comprising 'movable exhaust heads mounted to permit an immediate and direct 1 connection of each hot sealed-in lamp to one of said heads, and means responsive to movement of said heads for connecting them to. an

freed from air while still hot.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my exhaust pump, and actuating means for operati'ng said mechanisms in synchronism to move said heads and to maintain them in such V "relation as to permit a sealed-in lamp to be transferred directly and immediately from a RROWS. 

